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Episode 1356: Keep Your Eye on the Bat
Date April 1, 2019 Summary Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller, and Meg Rowley banter about Sam’s cabin sojourn, how well Major League has held up, an exciting development in strategic bat tosses, a big day for Willians Astudillo, the difficulty of drawing conclusions about baseball early in the season, the early-season home-run rate, the paradox of sports radio, Sam’s Jose Ramirez hot take, bunting against four-man outfields, service-time manipulation and Kyle Freeland, whether we would notice if MLB stealthily implemented robot umps, and check-swing mistakes, plus Stat Blasts about Luke Voit and perfect starts to the season, the most MLB games ever played in one day, the longest gaps between pairings of the same pitcher and catcher, and Yu Darvish and the most pitches thrown in a game before the first ball in play. Topics * Dropping or tossing the bat strategically * Takeaways from the opening weekend * Best time to write about baseball * Jose Ramirez * Bunting against a four-man outfield * Willians Astudillo * Minnesota Twins merchandise * Sports radio * Kyle Freeland and service time manipulation * What if MLB implemented robot umpires without an announcement? * Most MLB games played in one day * Most pitches thrown before putting a ball in play * Longest pitcher/catcher battery gaps Intro Disclosure, "Together" Outro Frank Sinatra, "We’ll Be Together Again" Banter * Sam has returned from the cabin where he spent Opening Day. He also watched Major League for the first time. Email Questions * Brad: "A Stat Blast question: today, Luke Voit homered in his first at-bat of the season, giving him a perfect 5.000 OPS after one plate appearance (1.000 OBP and 4.000 SLG). He then walked twice and was hit by a pitch, ending the day with four plate appearances and a still-perfect 5.000 OPS. His OPS has been perfect for in every plate appearance of the season so far after the first.My question is: has his ever happened before? What is the highest number of plate appearances a batter has had to start a season with a perfect OPS? And was that player's OPS perfect the entire time? (i.e., did he homer first?)" * Evan: "What is highest number of MLB games played in one day? This has been rattling around my head for a while. In our context I think it would be 17 or 18. All 30 teams play one game and there are a couple makeup games. Was this number exceeded sometime in the past when the doubleheader was more common? Was there ever a “doubleheader day” in the 1960s where all 20 teams played two games?" * Andrew: "When Kenley Jansen came into today's Dodger game pitching to Russell Martin I looked up if they had ever played with each other before back when Martin was previously with the Dodgers in 2010. And it turns out Martin caught a single inning of his, in Kenley's second appearance in the majors, on July 25 2010. That got me wondering what the longest time is between two appearances for the same battery. 8 years and 8 months feels like a pretty long gap but it seems like some pairing has probably had a longer gap than this one. Is this gap (or the one between Kershaw/Martin games that started Aug 1 2010 and will presumably end soon) anywhere near a record? I've no idea how to look this up or if it even can be looked up (or if it's interesting to anyone else!)." * Anthony and Shawn: "What is the largest number of pitches to start out a game without a ball in play? Darvish just threw 57 pitches before any ball was put in play - four strikeouts, a caught stealing, and six walks." * Matt: "If MLB decided to institute an automated strike zone, and didn’t tell anyone, how long would it take for people to notice? (Assuming some sort of system that only the home plate ump would be notified of the call) Who would notice first? How long would it take before players stopped their constant arguing of balls and strikes?" Stat Blast * There have been three other players who had a 5.000 OPS through three at-bats, Luke Voit, Madison Bumgarner, and Earl Webb, Earl held that record for 80 years. * The most number of games in a single day was 21 on September 7th, 1970, there were 9 doubleheaders that day. * The longest time between a pitcher and catcher working together, for years when we do have data, was Rick Reed and Tom Prince having a 13 year gap between 1988 and 2001. * Most pitches before a team allowed a ball in play was Carlos Martinez in 2017 with 61, and Randy Johnson in 2002 with 52, and Trevor Bauer with 2015 with 53 pitches. Note * Sam got a couple of players to admit to trying to strategically drop the bat. * In the first four games of the season there have been 134 home runs. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 1356: Keep Your Eye on the Bat * Can a strategic bat toss turn trash into treasure? by Sam Miller * Dansby Swanson's bat toss * Who's Ahead of Whom? by Max Marchi * Russell Martin's pitching feat first since 1963 by Matt Kelly * What about position players pitching with a huge lead?by Fox Sports * Record number of MLB games in one day * Longest gaps in pitcher-catcher pairings * Most pitches before first ball in play * Yu Darvish's start * Carlos Martinez's start * MLBPA Grievance Against Four MLB Clubs Still Pending More Than A Year Later by John Perrotto Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes